The one Portsmouth and two Preston North End players who could be ruled out this weekend by Championship rule

Portsmouth host Preston North End on Saturday afternoon in their last Championship outing before the international break but both sides are at risk of having players unavailable for the game.

Both clubs are in midweek action with Preston hosting league leaders Sunderland while Pompey are on the road at Championship relegation rivals Plymouth Argyle. John Mousinho is contending with a host of injury problems, something that has been a theme of the season for Pompey as they look to lift themselves off the bottom of the Championship table.

As things stand, Jordan Williams is walking a suspension tightrope as he has picked up four yellow cards so far. EFL suspension rules state that any player who accumulates five yellow cards before match week 19 will be issued with a one-game ban. 10 yellows before game-week 32 will result in a two-match ban while 15 bookings before a team’s 38th match will mean a three-match suspension.

It means the Pompey man has a few more games to be on his best behaviour in order to avoid a ban while Preston pair Ali McCann and Andrew Hughes are also on four yellows each. A booking for any of the three players during midweek will result in a suspension and cause them to miss Saturday’s fixture at Fratton Park, per the Championship rules outlined above.

Portsmouth’s clash against Plymouth will be refereed by James Bell, who has taken charge of six Championship games so far. He has handed out 31 yellow cards in those games, at a rate of 5.17 cautions per game. Meanwhile, Lewis Smith will be the man in the middle for Preston’s contest with Sunderland. He has been more inclined to keep his cards in his pocket, with 14 cautions issued in five Championship games. That is a rate of 2.8 yellows per game.

Portsmouth drew 1-1 with Hull City in their last outing and Mousinho wants his side to continue to build their momentum against Plymouth and Preston this week. He said: “There’s plenty of things we can do and talk about – but ultimately it’s down to the players to go out and change things. We have to do something different and it’s about carrying the momentum from the second half on Saturday into this game.

“There have been times before when we’ve had a good base and not capitaised on that, so that’s the challenge for the lads. We’ll keep addressing it and get the thoughts of the lads on anything we need to do in terms of preparations. But we have to start well and keep ourselves in the game in order to provide us with a platform to build on. There is the Plymouth who play at home and the one who play away – and we’ve got the former on Tuesday.

“They’ve got a good record at their ground this season and I think we can disregard the result at the weekend. I’m sure there will be players coming back into the team and a change to their style of play. We’ll make sure we approach the game the right way. We’ll have to be right at it and on the front foot against a side who are down near the bottom, but on their day, really tough opponents. We have nobody else back for this match and will be picking from the same 21-man squad we had on Saturday.”